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THURSDAY, June 28, 2012 — The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional, the Supreme Court decided this morning.

Five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.

The Court's decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said that Congress may "offer funds under the ACA to expand the availability of health care," however, "what Congress is not free to do is to penalize States that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding."

How will the Supreme Court’s decision affect you? Tell us in the comments section below.